EliteX
by Prof3154571
Summary: A young man trained as an anti mutant soldier finds himself not only possessing extraordinary abilities, but also questioning his beliefs and moral values.
1. Intro

Smoke filled my lungs as I walked down the street. Pieces of asphalt crumbled and fell into cracks and fissures that spread across the ground like spider webs. Rubble and debris, fallen from the buildings on either side of me lay on the sidewalk and scattered on the burned out husks of cars and smoldering corpses. I felt pangs of sadness at these meaningless wastes of human life, but there was nothing I could do about it. As I walked, Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" played in my head. It seemed somehow appropriate for the situation. I stopped at a gaping hole in the ground that had once been the home of a friend of mine. I felt another twinge of emotion, and thought back on all of the events that led up to this moment.

"Tara! Get your ass in gear! Down here in 1 minute or I'm taking the car and you can run to school!" I called up the stairs before ducking out of the way as my twin sister threw her hairbrush over the upstairs banister at me. It stuck, quivering in the step that I had been standing on. "Too slo-" my taunt was cut short as she leapt from the top step and landed on my back, wrestling me to the floor. "And I'd still get there before you." She teased. "Now let's go. Mom and Dad gone already?" she asked "They never even came home last night." I replied, shaking my head. We were used to this by now; our parents were always being called of on assignments. They were the best of the best, members of the Elites, which is a branch of government dedicated to mutant activity suppression that operates similar to, but separate from the Purifiers, the more extreme anti-mutant organization. The Elites are specially trained and equipped to take down the greatest mutant threats. My parents trained my sister and I since we could walk to be able to join them and take out mutants threats as well, but there is a major difference between the Elites and the Purifiers: We aren't mutant haters, so my parents made sure to teach us to only hunt the dangerous mutants. If they haven't shown any hostility or don't pose any potential threat to national or global security, we wouldn't take the case.

After a quiet ride to school, Tara and I parted ways and headed to class. The clock dragged by, and I was resigned to another dull day until around lunch time, when I came across a gathering of students in the hallway, chanting the classic battle cry: "Fight, fight, fight!" When I managed to get into the crowd, however, I saw that this fight wouldn't last very long, seeing as contender one was Scott Gregor, defensive end on the football team, nicknamed, "Truck" the other, a small, skinny boy, typical nerd by the name of Steve Davies. He was a mutant with the unfortunate (in this case) condition of having malleable, almost rubbery bones, preventing him from sustaining serious injury or even being knocked unconscious, a fact that Gregor seemed determined to disprove by repeatedly shoving him against a locker. I stepped forward, out of the crowd. "Leave him, Scott. What did he do to you?" Gregor gave Davies another vicious shove, causing him to grunt in pain. His rubbery bones didn't stop him from feeling that. "Are you standing up for this little freak? I thought your parents would have taught you better than that." Gregor sneered, walking casually toward me. It was no secret what my parents did for a living, so shouldn't it stand to reason that I'd be able to defend myself if he tried something?

Apparently reasoning wasn't his strong suit, as he drew back a fist and swung, to various gasps from the peanut gallery. I jumped back, avoiding his clumsy swing, and then darted forward, giving him a warning jab to the ribs. He wasn't good at taking hints, either. He came back around with a sloppy haymaker, so I knocked his arm upward with one hand, and brought my other arm in for a harsh blow to his side, right below the ribs. "Walk away, Scott. You can't beat me." I tried to sound like I was merely stating a fact, but I couldn't help sounding a little smug. He wheezed, and then lunged at me for a grab. Big mistake on his part. I ducked in for what I like to think of as my signature move: a series of piston punches to his gut, causing him to double over just in time to meet my knee, which was coming up to introduce itself. He dropped like a sack of potatoes. Big, stupid potatoes that pick on smaller weaker ones.

"Are you all right, Steve?" I held out my hand and helped him to his feet. "Y-yes, I'm fine, thanks… uh…" He looked embarrassed. "I didn't catch your name." he said apologetically. "I'm…" the bell signaling the end of lunch cut me off. "…going to be late." I finished, and ran off to my next class. I felt a familiar tingle of adrenaline filling my limbs. Too late for that now, I thought. The action's over, that was probably the most exciting thing that'll happen to me for a while. How wrong I was. The tingling lasted for the rest of the day, and when I got home, I recieved the nastiest static shock in history when I touched the doorknob. None of this registered as particularly unusual to me at the time, but the signifigance of it couldn't be any clearer to me now.


	2. Awakening

All in a Day's Work

I had limitless power and unending energy. I had the knowledge that I could do anything I so chose with no need to care for the consequences. I had no need to worry about what the others thought of me, they were infinitely far away from me. I reached out, searching for any world that might be of interest to me. One small world caught my attention. There was something unique about this one, something interesting. A different type of energy permeated the natural occurring energy of that world. I focused my attention on it, getting a better look. What I saw sparked my anger. I saw the taint of one of the others on this world. It had been there for eons and none of us had noticed. It had taken up residence and had even gained form, bonding with lower life forms and granting them its power. It had no right to be there, and I would make it realize that and leave, handing this world over to me. Anger and excitement welled within me as I drew closer to the world. I paused. This world had large amounts of a force I could not overcome, not without damaging my new domain and drawing the attention of the other. I was not yet ready to confront it, I would learn more about this world first, test the extent of this new energy. But I would need a medium through which to channel my energy, a lower life form. If the other could do this, then so could I.

"Isaiah, Tara, rookies, we're nearly there." The helicopter pilot snapped me out of my daydream with his abrupt comment. We had been sitting in silence the entire ride because we were uneasy about our new teammates. We had recruited these two young mutants months ago and been training them for situations such as these. A disgruntled student who was tired of being bullied and decided to strike back was holding a high school in another city hostage. Unfortunately, this decision coincided with the awakening of his mutant power to somehow create high impact explosions. Our new mutant recruits, Rosemary and Fugue, would help keep the situation under control. Born on the same day in the same hospital they were what we call suppressants. Rosemary had chosen her name based on the herb, which is supposedly a demon repellant commonly used in exorcisms. She had the ability to cut off a mutant's connection to any external force that they may channel to activate their power, such as the heat energy this new mutant used. She referred to this as exorcising their ability. Her counterbalance was her boyfriend Fugue, his name chosen from the psychological condition in which a person loses touch with their individual characteristics, and often associates their identity with other peoples'. He could place mental blocks on mutants who relied on internal energy for their abilities, such as telepaths. We had planned on getting them used to battle situations by starting them off small, but things don't always go as planned and now we were on our way into a very high stakes situation. Rosemary caught my eye and smiled nervously. I smiled back, which Fugue caught and glared at me. "Fantasizing about my girl?" he growled. "With me sitting right here?" "I turned to him, still smiling. "Actually yes, I was, and if you'd like to be in on it, let me know, I'll _gladly_ include you in any future fantasies." I expected him to respond with a horrified look or shocked silence, but instead he looked down at his feet, and I could swear he was blushing.

"We're here, everyone." Tara spoke up after a few moments. The helicopter had touched down on the roof of a four-story school building. As we disembarked, she spoke to Fugue. "Don't mind my brother, he always makes jokes when he's scared." "I'm not scared." I protested, but she waved dismissively. "Let's get in there and get our bearings, then find this guy." She said. "Rose, Fugue, try to stay close to us and get a read on him as soon as possible and block his power." She pulled the cover off of a vent and motioned toward it, bowing like a doorman in a hotel. "After you, bro." I hoisted myself up into the entrance, looked at Rosemary and Fugue, winked, and lowered myself into the vent. I crawled as quickly and quietly as I could until I could see into a darkened classroom below. I heaved downward on the vent cover to loosen it, and then shoved it out of the duct, holding onto it with one hand to keep it from falling to the floor and making noise. I heard numerous gasps and whimpers and realized that this room was not empty; its occupants were huddled under their desks with the lights out to avoid attracting the mutant's attention. I motioned for one of the students to come closer, and he obliged, glancing nervously at the door. "Catch." I whispered, dropping the vent cover. He grabbed it and set it gently down on the floor. I lowered myself from the vent and dropped to the floor. "Who are you guys?" the boy asked as my sister and teammates joined me in the room. "Special forces. The Elites." I replied. "You mean elites?" he asked. "No, it's pronounced 'E-lights.'" I explained patiently "We were founded by a man named Eli Walsh." "History lesson later." Tara hissed. "Where is he?" "Out there somewhere. We heard him go by like ten minutes ago." Chimed a girl near the back of the room. "Stay put, we'll take care of this." Tara said reassuringly. We all walked to the door and paused. I put on my Thermal scan goggles and looked through the door. Seeing nothing in the hallway, I signaled the others and we stepped into the hall.

We slowly moved down the corridor, using specially modified earpieces that would filter out the sound of our own footsteps and alert us to the presence of any others in our vicinity. Our sweep of the fourth and third floors came up empty, but when we reached the second floor, we were alerted to a fifth set of footsteps rapidly closing in on us. We drew our stun guns, pressurized high voltage dart pistols, and braced for combat. A thin boy with dark hair, black nail polish and eyeliner came running at us, brandishing a shapeless mass of melted metal. Apparently, he had come with a gun, planning to massacre the school, but then his ability awoke and had destroyed his firearm, searing the metal to his flesh. We all jumped behind cover, in doorways and behind trashcans, and fired our stun guns, but watched, dismayed as the darts melted before our eyes. He had used his ability instinctively, and protected himself with a wave of superheated air. "Shit!" Tara shouted. "Rose, Fugue, do your thing!" They both started concentrating, trying to pinpoint our assailant's ability type. Rosemary won out. "He's channeling heat energy and expelling it!" she cried. "What are you waiting for?" I called back. "Stop him!" I saw the air around our target shimmer as he prepared for another blast. Suddenly it stopped, and he looked confused. We jumped out and rushed him, but he ran off down the hallway away from us.

I was faster than the others, so I pulled ahead of them, that familiar tingling sensation spreading through my limbs again. As I closed the distance between the mutant and myself he ducked into a classroom on the left. I followed him, and saw that the floor was covered in dead bodies. Victims of his massacre. I was furious to see that he had killed so many people and looked up to see him laughing. The sound of it, the look on his face made me even angrier. I wanted to make him stop laughing and realize what he had done, I wanted to make him hurt. The tingling became painful, almost unbearable, and I rushed at him. Too late, I noticed the air shimmering again. We must have been out of Rosemary's range. It was too late to stop myself, and I saw him flex his shoulders, releasing the energy just as I was about to collide with him. The floor blew out from under us and we fell into the classroom below. I landed on top of him and watched his eyes roll back and he began to buck under me as high voltage surged through his body. I figured my dart gun must have fired while pinned between us, but then I saw it lying on the floor a few feet away. There was a failsafe that prevented the dart from shocking while the trigger isn't depressed, and since it was across the room, it couldn't be shocking him, as I came to this realization, I felt the tingling in my body become painful again, and I rolled off of the mutant, writhing in agony on the floor.

Tara, Rosemary and Fugue rushed in. "Oh my God, Sai, what's wrong?" Sai. I had never liked that, but I tolerated it because Tara was my sister. I never understood why mom had decided to name me Isaiah pronounced Ee-zy-ah. But about now I didn't care. All I cared about was that I was dying. "He's activating." Rosemary said quietly. "What? Don't be ridiculous, there's no history of mutation in our family!" Tara snapped, "There doesn't have to be." Fugue chimed in. "That's not important. What is important is that he's activating, and he's in pain, and we should knock him out to ease that pain. Tara looked at me, tears in her eyes, and then fired her dart gun. I felt the dart hit, felt the electricity start to surge through me, but something was wrong. I'd been hit with a dart before, and it hurt and numbed at the same time and the charge fades away. But now, the charge seemed to be building on itself, becoming agonizing. I had never felt such pain. The electricity surged through me, circulating like a swarm of wasps trying to get out of a plastic bag. I wanted nothing more than to let them free, and end my pain, and as I thought that, I felt power surge out of me, blasting my sister and Rosemary and Fugue away from me and into the walls. I felt the pain subsiding and exhaustion set in. I let it take me into a nice comfortable sleep. I dreamt of being an all-powerful being, soaring through space, passing planets and stars, chasing a flaming shape. Chasing it so that I could kill and devour its light.


End file.
